Zinnia
UNPUTDOWNABLE historical fiction read that takes you back to the heart of the Harlem Renaissance, highlighting the life and legacy of Jessie Redmon Fauset—a literary powerhouse often overshadowed by the very writers she helped shape. As the first Black woman to serve as the literary editor of The Crisis, she played a pivotal role in discovering and promoting legendary voices like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Nella Larsen.
The book also shares Fauset’s complicated and secretive affair with W. E. B. Du Bois. The author’s note stresses this is historical fiction but also shares the extensive research she did on this fact.
I loved how the book brings to life such an interesting time in our history filled with artistic revolution and racial uplift - a perfect historical fiction and Black history read!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #historicalfiction #HarlemRenaissance #harlemrhapsody
15yr old Fern (Neva) is sent to Wellwood House in 1970 to give birth in secret and surrender her baby for adoption. Under the horrible supervision of Miss Wellwood, Fern and the other pregnant girls form bonds, united by their shared isolation and desperation. When a librarian gives Fern an occult book but kind of kitschy on witchcraft, the girls discover a way to reclaim their power in a world that has stripped everything. But wielding such power comes with major and dangerous consequences.
“There’s power in a book” is a great way to describe this scary, highly uncomfortable story about young girls reclaiming their power in a society intent on silencing them. This was a great story of defiance, sisterhood, and the dangers of wielding forbidden knowledge. I loved all of that part! I loved it enough that I wanted to read it slower to stay in that story longer. AND THERE’S A CHARACTER NAMED ZINNIA!!!!
HOWEVER, I didn’t like the way he wrote some characters and moments—especially involving Black characters and birth scenes—feels inauthentic and could have benefited from greater sensitivity. The birth scenes were kinda comical and I thought, “ugh a man definitely wrote this!”
Despite these missteps, the book’s feminist undertones left an indelible mark, reminding me of that quote, “they didn’t burn witches, they burned women.” - witch hunts were never about witches, but about silencing women. If you like eerie, thought-provoking stories then I definitely recommend this one!
“They hate us enough. Don’t hate yourself too.”
“What do you think librarians do? Checkout books? Certainly not! We deliver knowledge to those who need it.”
Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha rise from troubled childhoods to captivate the world as champion ice dancers. Their fiery chemistry and rebellious style on the ice mirror their turbulent off-ice relationship and made for a good romance read. It’s wasn’t quite the Olympic gold, but it’s a solid silver medal 🥈 read for a sports romance drama.
David Bowles and Guadalupe Garcia McCall have crafted a literary masterpiece that seamlessly blends history, mythology, and contemporary struggles, creating a narrative that is as timeless as it is poignant. This 5⭐️ novel is an absolute must-read for those looking for a heartfelt and mesmerizing journey across time and culture!
A slow burn thriller with diverse characters about a black father and a white father whose sons where married and murdered in cold blood. When the case goes cold the fathers take it upon their hands to find out who the killer is.
“Folks like to talk about revenge like it's a righteous thing but it's just hate in a nicer suit.”
Calling all librarians, teachers, reading specialists, book clubbers, parents, and READERS! I highly suggest you read this book over the summer. Read it, digest it, then INCORPORATE it with your students and young readers! It's geared towards elementary and middle school classroom/students but it could easily be incorporated into the secondary classroom as well as book clubs.
It's been a couple hours since reading the last words of this story and I'm still processing it all. I feel the need to have the right words to really express my thoughts and feelings about what I just read. This should be in every classroom and shared with every student and teacher, and everyone outside of school as well.
I know this is a work of fiction but I also know there are many stories like this and other stories yet to be told that are very much real and sadly nothing fictional about them. So many, many men, women, and children make the heartbreaking decision to leave their country, their loves, their home, their hopes and dreams to travel across miles and miles of land by foot and on a dangerous beast of a train knowing full well the risks their lives will be in every second along the way. And yet, they do it. Why? Because what they need to leave and flee from is far worse than what is ahead of them. Because they too have dreams and wish to pursue happiness. Because they too are human.
The humanity of their journey, the humanity of their plight, the humanity of their fear and dreams are what grips me. How can it not? How can we just shrug and say, “oh well, not my problem.” I hear you, Pulga. I hear your scream and that of all those just wanting a chance at the best and beautiful life that we all want. I will share this book with everyone I know young and old. Pulga, Chico, and Pequena will stay with me forever and I will make sure others know their story as well.
From the book, not even half way through their journey...
“We did it.
We are not those in the distance who have stopped running and have to wait for the next train. We are not those back in our neighborhoods, waking up to another day and another and another and whatever threat has climbed in through our windows, whispered our horrible fate into our ears.
We are each luchadores. We are fighters. We are those who dared to try against impossible odds.
We determine our own feet.
The train speeds up even more and the hot when is whipping at our faces. The sun beats down on us, so bright it hardly seems real. We settle in, weaving our fingers into the small holes in the grades on top of the train, and holding on, so tight.
And even though we're afraid, even though the fear is right there we need the surface, it's a different kind of fear.
It's fear with hope.
And hope matters, as we ride in an unknown future.
Danger behind us.
Danger ahead of us.
Danger all around us.”
#5starread #favoriteread2020
First, let me just start off by stating that I don't fall completely in line with the camp that a white woman simply cannot write on this topic. Ethnicity is not the issue. Not completely. However, that said, I do understand why some people believe a white woman SHOULDN'T write about the experiences of Latino migrants.
The author said she did 5yrs worth of research and yet there were way too many blatant stereotypes and inaccuracies sprinkled throughout the book that left me feeling as if this book was just slapped together carelessly filled with ignorance and stereotypes and slapped together simply because a major dollar deal was offered. I did a hard eye-roll and guttural gag with the character's incredulous reaction to the fact that there were some nice people in Mexico amongst all of the drug lords. Did her five-year research show her nothing good about Mexico and its people? Oh no, of course not, let's just keep feeding those ideas and messages that Mexico=Bad and America=Good and all Mexico has to offer are drug dealers and rapists. Disgusting and done already and, if you haven't noticed, quite damaging.
Though the author doesn't fall too far from reprimand as I just stated above, who I'm really coming for are the publishing companies and their practices that have been an obstacle for years. The fact that there are whole movements #WeNeedDiverseBooks and #DiversifytheCannon and #DignidadLiteraria is quite telling and a loud plea to publishers to DIVERSIFY both the writing and the authors that write the books!
I am definitely with those fighting the publishing companies pushing back on their promos saying this book is definitively THE immigrant story, “a novel that defined the migrant experience.” As well as pushing back the great O giving it her stamp of approval the day it came out saying, “I feel like everyone who reads this book is actually going to be immersed in the experience of what it means to be a migrant on the run for freedom.”
Sandra Cisneros was recently interviewed and asked but what about authenticity in the story and the author. And she very simply responded with, “well then write those stories.” Wow. So all those authors out there that are immigrants themselves or have family that have actually lived the immigrant story to tell and haven't gotten that illustrious seven figure deal because they just haven't written it or have written it but just said, “Nah, I'm good. No big monetary deal or Oprah book club pick necessary.”???
That's my point of contention! True, authentic stories HAVE been written by authentic immigrant authors! For years! There've just NOT BEEN INVITED TO HAVE A SEAT AT THE BIG PUBLISHERS TABLE! How lucky we are that the great white hope author and her publisher have finally “given a face to the faceless brown mass” that are the immigrants of the south by publishing a book like this.
Esmeralda Bermúdez wrote perfectly and succinctly for the LATimes about who this book was written for and published for, “...this book was not written for people like me, for immigrants. It was written for everyone else — to enchant them, take them on a wild border-crossing ride, make them feel all fuzzy inside about the immigrant plight.”
In short, what this book is not... factual, authentic, helpful, well-written. What this book is...a two bit suspenseful thriller, cheap telenovela.
I won't tell you what to read or not read. Some of you will read it even if I say SAVE YOUR TIME AND MONEY AND PLEASE DON'T. But if you do decide to read it let me BEG of you to please read others as well. Please read authors that have been living these stories, writing about these stories, and fighting to be heard for many, too many, years.
How many of you have HEARD of or READ works of the following authors?
Tomás Rivera
Gloria Anzaldúa
Oscar Zeta Acosta
Americo Paredes
Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales
Ernesto Galarza
Elena Poniatowska
Cherríe Moraga
Luis Alberto Urrea
Ana Castillo
How many of you have STUDIED the following authors? How many of you have read at least just one single piece of their work or at the very least an EXCERPT of these authors' work? These are just some authors that have been writing about border life, the immigrant experience, and the rich and complex Mexican American life. They have been around and writing for a while now so why haven't they been offered the big money deal from the big publishing houses?! Because, as the deal makers have always used as an excuse, “those authors don't sell” or “those stories don't sell.” Have you tried? Hmmm, let me guess why this story is selling now?
Readers have a part to play in this too. Read and demand from publishers authentic stories and authors. Don't read, or read, this piece of crap if you want but now that you KNOW BETTER, DO BETTER, and read some, or ALL, of true, authentic authors writing true, authentic immigrant stories too!
